Framingham store sells Asian specialties

Formosa Marketplace specializes in Asian products, especially those from Taiwan - formerly known as Formosa, hence the marketplace's name. Chinese and Japanese products also populate the shelves at this compact establishment.

By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff

Posted Jun. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 24, 2013 at 10:14 PM

By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff

Posted Jun. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 24, 2013 at 10:14 PM

FRAMINGHAM

» Social News

If you're shopping in MetroWest and looking for Chinese spinach, Taiwanese beef jerky or Nishiki rice from Japan, you might have trouble locating them. Unless you shop at Formosa Marketplace.

The Framingham store specializes in Asian products, especially those from Taiwan - formerly known as Formosa, hence the marketplace's name. Chinese and Japanese products also populate the shelves at this compact establishment.

Chia Hsin Chen, a native of Taiwan, opened the marketplace in January. "I wanted to introduce Taiwanese culture to the area and having a market that sold Taiwanese specialty foods would be a way to do it," said Chen, explaining why she started the store.

Her four-member staff just doesn't sell these products, Chen points out. They know these products. That's especially helpful since many of the labels contain little or no English. "We have a bilingual staff - Chinese and English - and some are trilingual as they speak Japanese, also," says Chen. "So we can provide advice for our products. We can also provide cooking and baking instructions for Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese products.

"Language can be a big barrier for people who don't speak Chinese when they go shopping in a Chinese marketplace," Chen continues. "They can't read the labels so we can help. Customers also come in with recipes, but they can't find the products. We can help there, too."

These free product and cooking consulations separate Formosa Marketplace from other stores where the employees frequently only know what aisles the products are in.

The Framingham resident adds that in the near future the marketplace will be offering cooking seminars.

The 1,800-square foot-store, which previously housed Waterspot Showrooms, is at 271 Worcester Road (Rte. 9 west in between Shoppers World and the Rte. 126/30 intersection in the same building as Sichuan Gourmet and the DrinkMaster Bartending School of Framingham).

Plenty of shelf space gets devoted to a variety of noodles. In the Japanese food section, instant miso soup can be bought $3.59, good for 8 servings. A 10-pound bag of the aforementioned Nishiki rice sells for $12.99.

In the frozen food section, customers will find red bean ice cream bars. For soft drinks, check out Ramune, a Japanese beverage with a marble on top. Push the marble in and it stays in a separate chamber so when you drink it, the marble rattles around in the neck of the bottle - and not in your throat.

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Formosa Marketplace even sells homemade dishes such as five-spice eggs, made by Chen herself. "She uses a secret recipe," says employee Gina Guo of Natick. "She won't even tell us what the recipe is."

The marketplace is Chen's third business. With her mother, she founded an international trading business in South America and later one that focuses on domestic trading.

After five years in the trading business, Chen decided to come to the United States to further her education. She received a degree in accounting from the University of Iowa and her MBA from Babson College in Wellesley. She's now putting that knowledge to work.

"Business is getting better," she says. "It's this concept. People like it. They tell their friends that there's this awesome Asian grocery store in Framingham, you have to come and check it out. There's more American traffic. They feel comfortable here. They find easy access to the products and they can communicate."

David Sommers of Needham was part of that American traffic on a recent weekday. "I have a Taiwanese girlfriend and she sent me here to check it out," Sommers says. "It looks very interesting. The greens look really good."

For Chen, satisfaction comes from delivering the goods, literally. "When people come in and see a product and say, 'Oh my God, I've been looking for that for a long time,' that makes me feel happy."

Formosa Marketplace is open Monday through Thursday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Its website is www.formosamarketplace.com. The phone number is 508-872-1088. On Facebook, go to Formosa Asian Marketplace.